James Lipton (born September 19, 1926) is an American writer, lyricist, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994.\n', '

Lipton was born on September 19, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan, the only child of Betty (née Weinberg), a teacher and librarian, and Lawrence Lipton, a journalist. Noted as the author of the popular Beat Generation chronicle The Holy Barbarians, Lawrence was a graphic designer, a columnist for the Jewish Daily Forward and a publicity director for a movie theater. Lawrence was a Polish Jewish immigrant (from Łódź), while Betty\'s parents were Russian Jews. His parents divorced when Lipton was six, and his father abandoned the family.\n', '

Lipton\'s family struggled financially, and he started to work at age 13. He worked in high school as a newspaper copy boy for The Detroit Times, and an actor in the Catholic Theater of Detroit and in radio. After graduating from Central High School in Detroit, he attended Wayne State University for one year in the mid-1940s and enlisted in the United States Air Force.\n', '

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